U.S. says importer must recall Chinese tires

Lawrence Lavigne, a lawyer for FTS, could not immediately be reached for comment on Nason's letter. But he told Reuters earlier the importer first told Hangzhou Zhongce a recall was a possibility in September but did not confirm its suspicions until May after tests were completed.

"The bottom line is that the Chinese company unilaterally changed the specifications on us," Lavigne said.

Hangzhou Zhongce has a dispute with FTS over a previously signed contract, but the Chinese company's products have no quality problem, said Xu Youming, head of Hangzhou's legal department.

"FTS is only one of our distributors in America," Xu said. "If our products have a quality problem, how come the other distributors haven't sued us?"

The United States imports roughly 32 million tires annually from China, according to the Rubber Manufacturers Association, a trade group. It also imports tires from Canada, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

Nason said she is awaiting results of recent safety tests on tires imported from China, saying the agency routinely examines imports.

(Additional reporting by David Bailey in Chicago, Nick Zieminski in New York and Fang Yan in Shanghai)